CHILDREN'S BOOKS IRELAND - The KPMG Children's Books Ireland Book Awards Policy www.childrensbooksireland.ie
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The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Book Awards Policy
CHILDREN’S BOOKS IRELAND
www.childrensbooksireland.ie
POLICY INTENT
This policy incorporates all rules and regulations that relate to the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland
Awards. It includes the framework for implementing the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards and
the application process.
DESCRIPTION OF THE AWARDS
The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards (formerly the CBI Book of the Year Awards/Bisto Book of
the Year Awards) have been running since 1990 and are the leading children’s book awards in Ireland.
The awards are made annually by Children’s Books Ireland to authors and illustrators who were born
in Ireland, are permanently resident in Ireland or are citizens of Ireland and are open to books written
in Irish or English. The shortlist for the awards is announced annually in Belfast in March, in partnership
with Young at Art and the Belfast Children’s Festival, and the winners are announced in Dublin in May,
in partnership with the International Literature Festival Dublin.
The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards identify, honour and promote excellence in books for
young people by Irish authors and illustrators. The awards are the most prestigious in Ireland and offer
one of the few opportunities for national and international recognition of Irish authors and illustrators.
Excellence in children’s books is the over-arching criterion.
In 2022, the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards celebrated thirty-two years.
REVIEW
This KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy is reviewed every three years by a panel of invited
experts. Any suggested amendments arising from this panel will be presented to the board of
Children’s Books Ireland who will approve the amendments.
The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Submission Procedure and the KPMG Children’s Books
Ireland Awards Entry Form are reviewed annually by the Children’s Books Ireland Executive.
Approved by the Children’s Books Ireland Board: 11 December 2019
Signed: Date: 11 December 2019
(Patricia Forde, Children’s Books Ireland Chair)
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 1
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.
THE AWARDS A total of six awards are made:
Awarded by the judging panel:
The Book of the Year Award – €6,000
The Eilís Dillon Award for a first children’s book – €2,000
The Honour Award for Fiction – €2,000
The Honour Award for Illustration – €2,000
The Judges’ Special Award – €2,000
Awarded by young people who have taken part in the Junior Juries Scheme:
The Junior Juries’ Award – €2,000
In the case of titles with more than one creator, the award amount will be split
evenly.
CRITERIA FOR 1. Literary/artistic – an excellent children’s book is extremely well
EXCELLENCE conceived, structured and written or illustrated (or both).
2. Respect – an excellent children’s book appeals to an audience of
children or young people, without patronising or exploiting that
audience.
3. Engagement – an excellent children’s book entertains and engages the
sustained interest of its intended readers.
4. Experience – an excellent children’s book offers its readers a stimulating
and satisfying aesthetic, imaginative, intellectual or emotional
experience that goes beyond the banal and the obvious, and develops
or challenges the reader’s inner life, sense of self, or understanding of
and engagement with the world.
While design and production will be given due consideration, such issues will
not weigh substantially against a book that is otherwise outstanding, especially
in the case of a book that is not illustrated.
ELIGIBILITY From the June before the awards are announced, book publishers are invited to
CRITERIA submit titles for consideration, provided all eligibility criteria are met:
1. Books must be a first edition, published between 1 January and 31
December of the previous year, i.e. books to be considered for 2022
awards must be published between 1 January and 31 December 2021,
and must be submitted by the stated deadline in order to be
considered.
2. Books may be published in Ireland or abroad.
3. Authors or illustrators must be born or permanently resident in Ireland
or holders of Irish citizenship. To qualify, authors or illustrators must
hold a current valid Irish passport or be able to demonstrate full-time
residency or citizenship.
4. Books must be written for children or young people, i.e. for readers up
to eighteen years of age.
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 2
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.5. Books must be currently widely available in bookshops in Ireland and
available for purchase by the general public. Details of distribution must
be completed on the entry form.
6. Books must meet basic professional standards of publishing and
printing. Editing must be professional with conventions of spelling and
grammar upheld. All titles must have a valid ISBN number.
7. Books may be in English or Irish.
8. Books may be fiction, non-fiction or poetry.
9. Books by a deceased creator will be deemed eligible if published within
five years of the death of the artist. These details must be provided on
the entry form.
10. Books written as part of a series or published in serial format will be
judged as separate entities which must be able to stand alone as a
complete work in their own right. Each must have an independent
structure and not rely on the reader having knowledge of other parts of
the series.
11. Academic textbooks, translations and re-issues are not eligible.
However, a new iteration of a previously judged text will be eligible if a
living Irish creator is involved e.g. graphic novelisation of a book by an
Irish author.
12. Anthologies are eligible at the discretion of the Judging Panel, provided
they are primarily of Irish content, i.e. editor, contributors etc.
Note 1: These awards are for literary and artistic excellence; publishers should
only submit books they deem to be outstanding in this regard.
Note 2: Children’s Books Ireland reserves the right to include or exclude any
titles for the awards.
Note 3: Children’s Books Ireland reserves the right to ask the publisher for
supplementary information to determine eligibility.
Note 4: Children’s Books Ireland is not in a position to return books to the
publisher.
SUBMISSION Publishers must complete an entry form for each title submitted. Entry forms
PROCEDURE will be issued to publishers when a first callout is made by Children’s Books
Ireland in June of the year preceding the awards. Entry forms can also be found
enclosed in this document.
All sections of the form must be completed and accompanied by fifteen copies
of each book.
Publishers are encouraged to submit books as early as possible after the callout
to ensure that the judges have sufficient reading time. Books must reach an
address nominated by Children’s Books Ireland later than the specified date –
September 30th of the year preceding the awards announcement.
Late or incomplete submissions will not be accepted.
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 3
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.Forms can also be obtained by contacting jenny@childrensbooksireland.ie.
JUDGING Each year Children’s Books Ireland selects a chair for the awards, and in
PANEL conjunction with them, assembles a panel of judges who have considerable
expertise and interest in books for children.
The panel is composed of experts in various fields and they are given absolute
authority to judge, shortlist and choose winners from the submitted books. The
panel should be not less than seven judges and not more than ten, to include
four with an appropriate level of Irish, three with expertise in fiction and three
with expertise in illustration/picturebooks. The panel should also include a
young judge – usually a transition year student with an interest in reading and
the ability to articulate their opinion on the books. Children’s Books Ireland
strives to have an international judge on the panel where budget allows and
providing that a suitable individual can be identified and is available to
participate. In some instances, judges may have expertise in more than one
area. Judges may opt out of discussing particular titles if such titles fall outside
of their identified areas of expertise.
Judges should fulfil some of the following requirements:
• Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of the field of children’s
literature
• Hold a recognised qualification in the field of children’s literature
• Display awareness of illustration techniques and media, visual literacy,
design, writing styles and editing as they relate to children’s literature
• Be a member of the target market of the books being judged i.e. a child
or young person
Individuals can complete three years on the panel, either as a judge or as chair
or a combination of the two (e.g. two years as a judge and one as chair). These
years need not be consecutive. A gap of three years away from the panel must
be observed before a judge or chair is free to serve a further three years, either
consecutive or non-consecutive. If a judge has served non-consecutive years,
this gap will be counted from their last year serving on the panel. Six years in
total will be the maximum term that any one person can be a member of the
judging panel either as a chair or judge, or a combination of the two.
The chair is not an active judge but has a casting vote. There is no requirement
for the chair to be fluent in Irish. It is the chair’s responsibility to clearly
articulate the criteria of excellence at every meeting, and to ensure that it is
clear to the judges that excellence does not equal popularity or educational
value. A judging administrator, who may be a member of the Children’s Books
Ireland executive, will also attend each meeting but will not contribute to the
discussion nor will they have a vote. They are however free to answer questions
and clarify queries with regard to eligibility criteria, the rules and regulations
and judging procedures as outlined in this policy document.
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 4
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.Judges must attend all meetings, dates of which will be agreed in advance with
all judges. In the event that a judge cannot attend a prearranged meeting date
they must contact the awards administrator as soon as possible.
CONFLICTS OF Children’s Books Ireland makes every effort to identify potential conflicts of
INTEREST interest during the selection of the judging panel, and avoids inviting any person
to act as a judge where a clear conflict exists, for example where a potential
judge has been involved in the development, editing or publishing of an eligible
book, or an eligible author or illustrator is the partner/spouse, immediate family
member or close friend of a potential judge.
However, it is inevitable in a small book publishing market that certain judges
will have connections to authors, illustrators or publishing houses whose books
are eligible for the awards. Judges are responsible for maintaining the highest
ethical and professional standards. They must be especially sensitive to conflict
of interest situations as well as the appearance of impropriety, and should
immediately disclose to the chair, the administrator and, during discussions at
meetings, the other judges, any relationships they have with an author or
illustrator whose work is under consideration for the awards. In some cases, a
judge may not realise that a conflict of interest exists until s/he receives and
reviews the books for judging. In such instances the judge must immediately
alert the chair of the panel and the awards administrator. If the chair has a
conflict of interest, they must declare it to the awards administrator. In the case
that the chair must absent themselves from discussions, the awards
administrator will chair the judging panel.
A conflict of interest must be declared where close personal or professional
connection, relationship or association exists between a judge and the author or
illustrator of an eligible book. An ‘interest’ is either ‘pecuniary’ or ‘non-
pecuniary’ (e.g., familial relationships, or partners, formal or informal business
partnerships, personal friendships etc.) and can be either financial or non-
financial in nature.
In determining if something represents a conflict, it is also important to consider
the following tests:
i Could the ‘interest’ be reasonably expected to influence the judge’s
judgement or decision?
ii How would the judge’s judgement as it applies to the ‘interest’ be perceived
by an outside observer?
The chair may, at their discretion, ask a judge to leave the room/mute their
microphone and exempt themselves from discussing or voting on a particular
book if the judge’s connection to its author or illustrator could be perceived as a
conflict of interest and could be damaging to the integrity of the awards and the
reputation of Children’s Books Ireland. In extreme cases, a judge may be asked
to step down from the judging panel.
Any questions regarding conflicts of interest should be referred to the chair.
SELECTION At each meeting, judges receive between fifteen and twenty-five books which
PROCESS may be discussed at the following meeting. Judges must read and evaluate each
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 5
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.book, making detailed written notes. Judges’ notes must be made available to
the awards administrator if a judge is unable to attend a meeting. Judges do not
need to bring books to the following meeting; copies of the titles under
discussion will be available in Children’s Books Ireland or via the judging
administrator.
In advance of each meeting, the judging administrator asks judges to indicate
any books which can be set aside without discussion, i.e. books that judges
believe do not meet the criteria of excellence. If all judges agree unanimously
that a book can be set aside, it will be removed and will not be discussed. If a
judge is unable to judge a book for any reason, they should notify the
administrator and the chair.
At each meeting, the chair will invite contributions from judges about a
particular title. It is essential that all judges keep details of meetings entirely
confidential at all times. No judge should discuss their preferences, or the
preferences of other panel members, with anyone outside the judging panel at
any stage during or after the judging process. At each meeting the judges
debate the books they have read and discount any which they universally agree
should be removed from further consideration. At the conclusion of each
meeting, the judges will agree a selection of titles to be carried forward for
discussion. In the event that the panel reach deadlock and cannot reach an
agreement about a particular title, the chair shall have the casting vote. The
awards administrator will keep a record of these decisions.
Those books that have been carried over from each meeting form the basis of
the longlist, which is discussed at the final meeting. At this meeting the selection
is further refined to reach a list of up to ten titles.
Judges meetings may take place in person in the offices of Children’s Books
Ireland or a nominated venue, or online via a video conferencing platform.
JUDGES’ FINAL At the final meeting, the judges choose the shortlist as well as the winners of
MEETING – each award. Details of the procedure to be followed at the final meeting will be
VOTING AND discussed with the judges in advance.
AWARDS
Final meeting procedure
The following steps are taken at the final judges’ meeting in order to arrive at
the shortlist and the final awards.
Step 1
Judges begin their final meeting with a longlist, which consists of books that the
judging panel has selected to be brought forward from their previous meetings.
The judging panel reviews all eligible titles and assesses them according to the
criteria for the awards.
Each book is discussed briefly before a number of books are eliminated. The
decision to eliminate books at this stage is decided by a show of hands; a
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 6
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.majority of the judging panel must be in favour of elimination in order for this to
happen.
Step 2
At this stage the chair will encourage discussion on the remaining titles and urge
individuals to make the case for each of the titles. If this process does not lead
the panel to ten titles, they will then move to Step 3. If they have achieved a
shortlist of ten, that all judges are happy with, Step 3 can be skipped, moving on
to Step 4.
Step 3
Judges are then asked to score each of the remaining books using pre-agreed
scoring guidelines:
1–20 Very poor quality, offering little to the reader.
21–40 Some engaging elements but ultimately unsatisfactory and
flawed throughout.
41–50 Competent text and/or illustration though lacks appeal and
engagement with the reader.
51–60 Competent and well-conceived though with flaws. Reasonable
quality of text and illustration. Limited appeal to and
engagement with reader.
61–70 High quality of text and/or illustration. Concept and execution
are competently handled. Appeals to readers and engages
with them but not comprehensively.
71–80 Very high-quality text and/or illustration. Very well executed
and conceived but includes some small flaws.
81–90 Excellently conceived and executed though with some minor
lapses in quality of text and illustration. Engaging for the
reader in the most part but does not succeed in offering the
exceptional and lasting experience sought by the awards.
91–100 Truly outstanding quality of text and/or illustration. Flawless
in concept and execution. Offers the reader a lasting and
exceptional experience.
Scores for each book are averaged, paying due attention to titles which were
not judged by all the panel, e.g. Irish language titles. The titles are then listed
from highest score to lowest and judges are presented with a ranked list with
exact scores removed, for reference purposes.
Step 4
The chair invites nominations for each of the awards. Where more than one title
is nominated for an award, the nominator is asked to put forward the reasons
for their choice and each nomination is debated. After sufficient discussion, the
judges vote for their choice in each category, again paying due attention to
books where not every judge could vote. No award will be made if the judging
panel deems that no eligible book has reached an appropriate standard of
excellence. All awards are made entirely at the discretion of the judging panel.
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 7
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.The Eilís Dillon Award is given for a first children’s book; if the author or
illustrator has published another book which is not intended for a young
audience, this will not render an author or illustrator ineligible for this award.
There is no obligation for The Book of the Year Award winner to be chosen from
among the winners of the other awards.
Step 5
The ranked list is consulted to create a shortlist. The judging panel may choose
up to ten books for inclusion on the shortlist, but they are not obliged to list ten
if they feel that fewer than ten books meet the criteria of excellence.
The shortlist is announced in March and the winners in May. The contact given
by the publisher will be notified if their book is shortlisted, and authors and
illustrators may also be contacted directly by Children’s Books Ireland, but it is
the publisher’s responsibility to contact the artists directly. If a book is
shortlisted, publishers are required to provide forty complimentary copies of
each shortlisted title for promotional purposes upon notification of the
shortlisting. Publishers must be able to guarantee that submitted titles will
continue to be in print and available at the time of shortlisting and not only
during the submission process.
JUNIOR JURIES The Junior Juries Scheme provides a unique way for school/library/book club
groups to engage with the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards. Between the
shortlist announcement and the deadline for Junior Juries nominations to be
submitted, all juries will be fully supported by Children’s Books Ireland by phone
and email. Comprehensive packs, including activities and resources relating to
the shortlisted books, will be sent to each participating group. Joining Junior
Juries is free of charge. Each group chooses which of the shortlisted titles they
will read. They may read as many or as few books as they like; some groups may
choose not to read certain books for reasons related to availability of books,
language (in the case of Irish language books), language level, themes or the
time available in which to read the books. Each group reads and debates their
chosen shortlisted titles and completes a detailed ballot form to be returned to
Children’s Books Ireland before the specified deadline, including their agreed
score for each book on the shortlist. The scoring sheet for the Junior Juries
mirrors the judges’ scoring sheet (optional Step 3: Judges’ Final Meeting).
Groups must indicate if they have not read any title. Scores for each book are
averaged to decide the Junior Juries’ Award winner. More detailed information
can be found on our website in the Junior Juries’ FAQs document.
AWARDS The running order for the awards ceremony is as follows:
CEREMONY 1. Honour Award for Fiction
2. Honour Award for Illustration
3. Eilís Dillon Award
4. Judges’ Special Award
5. Junior Juries’ Award
6. Book of the Year Award
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 8
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.OPTIONS FOR Groups of young people who have participated in the Junior Juries are always
INVOLVEMENT invited to take part in the ceremony. There are a number of ways in which these
OF YOUNG groups can be involved, and this may change from year to year:
PEOPLE • Audience members at the ceremony
• Young readers as presenters of the Junior Juries’ Award
• Citation from young readers for the Junior Juries’ Award
• Shortlist citations composed and read by young readers
• Author/illustrator events with attending groups in the lead up to and
during the week of the ceremony
• Meet and greet with the shortlistees after ceremony
• Pre-recorded video footage of groups discussing their experience of
shadowing
• KPMG Junior Juries volunteer school workshops
NOTES ON JUDGING
NOTES ON In some cases, only one of two or more creators of a book meet the eligibility
JUDGING criteria: Irish-born, permanently resident in Ireland or a citizen of Ireland. In
BOOKS WITH these cases, the contribution of the Irish collaborator makes the book eligible as
MORE THAN a whole, and the judges may consider the book in its entirety rather than
ONE CREATOR attempting to delineate and judge separately the contributions of each artist.
In the case of the Eilís Dillon Award for a first children’s book, the Honour Award
for Fiction and the Honour Award for Illustration, only an Irish artist will be
eligible to win. The Eilís Dillon Award may be awarded to an Irish author or
illustrator working in collaboration with an artist who has previously published
work for children if the judging panel is confident that the Irish debut artist’s
contribution is strong enough to merit winning the award.
In the case of The Book of the Year Award, the judges must judge the book as a
whole, regardless of the nationality and therefore eligibility of the artists,
provided at least one of the artists is eligible. In the case of a book created by an
Irish artist with a non-Irish artist, the book would be awarded the The KPMG
Children’s Books Ireland Awards and both artists would receive an award. Any
prize money would be split equally between all contributing artists. The Junior
Juries’ Award and Judges’ Special Award will also function in this way.
JUDGING How image and text work together should be taken into account in assessing
ILLUSTRATED potential award winners. Images that accompany written text but do not add a
TEXTS great deal to the interpretation of the narrative may be considered for their
artistic quality alone. A picturebook must have a collective unity of storyline,
theme, or concept, developed through the series of pictures of which the book is
comprised.
• There must be a consistent quality of illustration throughout the book
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 9
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.• The artistic style, artistic elements of colour, line, shape and texture
must match to the written text or idea
• The illustrations in the book should help to fully engage the reader who
can identify with characters
• The illustration should display excellence of execution in the artistic
technique employed
• The illustration should display excellence of pictorial interpretation of
story, theme, or concept
The illustrations should be fully entwined with all the text on the page and this
should enhance or augment the storyline. The layout of the illustrations should
provide a balance of space and text.
JUDGING • When documenting factual materials, the information presented must
NON-FICTION show accuracy of data and the current state of knowledge and
TEXTS demonstrates accurate research.
• All tables, diagrams and graphs are clear.
• In the case of information books, how accurate and clear are the
illustrations
• There should be integration of text, graphics and illustrations to engage
interest and enhance understanding of the topic at a high standard.
• The layout must be clear, and consideration given to how the reader
obtains the information from the page.
• Indexing, glossary, timeline or bibliography should be accurate.
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 10
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.GUIDELINES FOR
BOOK PUBLISHERS
Follow these five steps to submit a title for these awards
STEP 1 Read the The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy for details about the
awards, eligibility criteria, assessment process etc.
STEP 2 Read the below notes pertaining to revised submission procedures in 2021 in
response to the COVID-19 pandemic:
• due to the offices of Children’s Books Ireland currently being closed
in accordance with the prevailing Irish Government’s advice –
submissions will now be direct to the judging administrator
• forms must be completed and returned to the judging administrator
(Jenny Murray) before an address will be released. Any title
submitted to the offices of Children’s Books Ireland without prior
agreement will be deemed ineligible. Publishers in the UK will be
asked to submit one copy directly to the UK judge and the 14 other
copies to an Irish address.
• we are aware that the majority of publishing houses have strict GDPR
polices in place, to ensure personal data, specifically private
addresses, will be deleted once it has been used for its submitted
purpose. If you do not have a policy in place, please note, by signing
the submission form you are agreeing to be compliant in all areas of
GDPR, to use personal data responsibly, for the purpose of its issue
only and to delete it immediately after use
• you will need to submit 15 copies per title
STEP 3 Complete all sections of the submission form and submit to
jenny@childrensbooksireland.ie
• if a title/s is deemed eligible Jenny Murray will issue recipient
addresses
STEP 4 Once shipping addresses have been received, please dispatch submissions as soon as
possible
• submissions sent to the offices of Children’s Books Ireland will be
ineligible
• submissions without a completed submission form per title will be
deemed ineligible (these can be emailed to
jenny@childrensbooksireland.ie)
• all submissions must arrive no later than September 30th
• please submit as soon as possible to aid the judging process
STEP 5 If shortlisted, publishers must contact all artists directly and submit 40 copies of the
shortlisted title/s within two weeks of notification to the address below or another
nominated address.
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 11
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.DEADLINES Publishers are encouraged to submit titles as early as possible to ensure that members of the judging panel have sufficient reading time. Books must reach Children’s Books Ireland – or nominated recipient address/s by September 30th, 2021. Late submissions and/or incomplete submissions will not be accepted. If this date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. For further Information, please contact: Jenny Murray Deputy CEO Children’s Books Ireland jenny@childrensbooksireland.ie +353 87 9158431 KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 12 Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.
The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2021
Entry Form
Please review The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy before submitting any title
Title
Author
(please attach biography)
Illustrator
(please attach biography)
Publisher
Date of publication
Who is eligible for the individual awards? Author (only) Illustrator (only) Both
Is this the first children’s book by Author (only) Illustrator (only) Both
I confirm that ______________(author) and/or ________________ illustrator is Irish by birth, citizenship or
residency in Ireland. Proof of citizenship or proof of address must be available upon request.
I confirm that this title has been published for the first time in Ireland and/or abroad between 1 January 2021
and 31 December 2021.
I confirm that this title is currently available in Ireland and will continue to be in print and available at the time
of shortlisting (please give details of distribution and outlets)
I agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of the The KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards.
Signed: _____________________________ Print Name: _______________________________
Address: __________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Telephone: ________________________________________
Email: ____________________________________________
Date: _____________________________________________
Please contact Children’s Books Ireland on +353 87 9158431 or jenny@childrensbooksireland.ie if you have
any queries.
Children’s Books Ireland reserve the right to include/exclude any titles for the awards.
www.childrensbooksireland.ie
KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards Policy 13
Last updated July 2021 for 2022 awards cycle.You can also read
